DC to Redskins: Lose the Racist Name

'Enough is enough,' council member says

(Newser)
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More pressure on the Redskins: The NFL team needs to change its "racist and derogatory" name, a resolution passed overwhelmingly by the DC Council says. The team's argument that the name is part of its heritage "is akin to saying to the Native American people ... your pain has less worth than our football memories," said council member David Grosso. The resolution passed is a watered-down version of one Grosso introduced earlier this year that called the name "insulting and debasing" and suggested the team be called the Redtails to honor the Tuskegee Airmen.

Team owner Dan Snyder has refused to change the name despite criticism from President Obama and members of Congress. Polls show a majority of fans want to keep the name, but "I do not care what the polls indicate," Grosso said before the vote. "A name change will not in any way jeopardize the loyalty that the fans have for this team." The council has no authority over the name of the team, which abandoned its DC stadium in 1997 and now plays home games in Maryland and practices in Virginia, the Washington Post notes. The "Maryland Redskins" is not among the alternative names that have been suggested for the team.

A Washington Redskins football team staff member wheels a bucket of helmets off the field after a practice at NFL football training camp at Redskins Park in Ashburn, Va.
(AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

A member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma shows his t-shirt during an interview prior to the start of the Oneida Indian Nation's Change the Mascot symposium.
(AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Redskins really doesn't have a derogatory connotation to it other than it represents Native American reference, until a crybaby liberal gets a hold of it and wants to call them the Washington nobody's. So we don't have to recognize the Indian culture in our history. They can just disappear. Even white politicians get confused and claim to be of Indian heritage and have high cheekbones when they don't.

StevenBird

Nov 7, 2013 1:19 AM CST

The Redtails were a pretty kick-ass bunch. It would be a pretty good name for a football team.

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